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116 117TELE-audiovision International The Worlds Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine 05-06/2014 www.TELE-audiovision.com www.TELE-audiovision.com 05-06/2014 TELE-audiovision International

DVBViewer Pro

Works on any PC with a DirectX9 compatible graphics card

Additional Codecs can easily be added

Recorder function for the simultaneous recording ofchannels or transponder streams

All DiSEqC options are supported

Can also be used as a media center since all usableformats are supported

Capable of receiving UHDTV in H.265

UHDTV Reception with DVBViewer Pro1. DVBViewer Pro is already capable of receiving Ultra HDTV in H.264 or H.2652. Timeshift is also available with Ultra HDTV in H.2643. Ultra HDTV reception in H.265

TEST REPORT TV Viewer Software


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118 TELE-audiovision International The Worlds Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine 05-06/2014 www.TELE-audiovision.com

TEST REPORT TV Viewer Software

The UltimateSoftware Solutionfor Reception of

TV and Radioon a PCIn the 01-02/2014 issue of TELE-audi-

ovision we introduced to you the makerof the TV viewer software DVBViewer.In this issue we are presenting to youthe ultimate version of this software:the DVBViewer Pro. If you want to testthis version yourself, you can downloadthe demo version for free from www.dvbviewer.com.

For this test report we loaded the lat -est version of DVBViewer Pro (version

5.2.8 at the time of our test) onto ourPC equipped with an Intel Core i7 2.6GHz CPU, a total of 8 GB of memoryand an HD compatible graphics cardfrom AMD. This setup exceeded theminimum requirements for DVBViewerPro: the graphics card merely needsto be compatible with DirectX 9. Thisvery small hardware requirement ismade possible by the fact that the en-tire workload involved in displaying aTV signal (regardless if its SD or HD)takes place on the graphics card on thebuilt-in chipset such that the CPU loadfrom DVBViewer Pro can hardly even bemeasured while its in operation.

Right at the start during the initial in -stallation the user has to select whichcomponents need to be installed along-side the basic program. But, have nofear, if you should happen to forget toinstall one or the other feature, it canalways be added at a later time. Weappreciated the ability to load a pre-con gured channel list from the verypopular ASTRA satellites at 19.2 eastposition. At the same time during theinitial installation you can also installsupport for various CI slots and plus theremote control solutions from differentmanufacturers. And then theres all thedifferent plug-ins and tools such as the

DVBViewer ProBeste Software

zum DVB Empfang am PC

1. DVBViewer Pro Installation menu withlanguage selection2. The folder location where recordedbroadcasts should end up can beselected.3. Setting up the folder where Timeshiftrecordings should go4. Setting up the extra recording timebefore and after a recording

TransEdit software for professionals forthe analysis and complete recording ofentire transponder streams.

Right after the initial installation, aCon guration Wizard starts up andbegins with the language selection.Thanks to a very active fan communitytheres a very well representative se-lection of different languages to choosefrom such that there should be a suit-able OSD language choice for every-

one. In the next step the user selectswhat folders all of the recordings andtime-shift cache should be stored in aswell as how much before and af ter timeshould be added to timer recordings.For more experienced users DVBViewerPro also lets you individually set the au-dio and video Codecs to be used. If youdont have any of the necessary Codecson your PC, they can be automaticallydownloaded to your PC during the ini-tial installation with a simple click of themouse. In the next step, DVBViewerPro wants to know what hardware isto be used. As long as its supported,DVBViewer Pro will instantly recognizeand setup the hardware. In the nalstep the folders for music, videos andpictures can be setup. Multiple folderscan be named here and then linked toa virtual archive since DVBViewer Pro isalso a fully functional media center withvideo and music players.

When DVBViewer Pro is started, a
http://www.tele-audiovision.com/14/03/dvbviewerhttp://www.tele-audiovision.com/14/03/dvbviewer


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nicely organized main window is pro-vided for the user. Compared to manyother PC solutions for TV and radioreception, this interface is especiallysleek in design and gives the user ac-cess (through a symbol bar at the top)to all of the most important features allin one place. If you decide to take atrip into the program options, you bet-ter hold on tight; the immense oodof adjustment and customization op-tions is huge. In order to understandall the different options and then usethem correctly, some experience andbackground knowledge would de nite -ly help. Thankfully though, ChristianHackbart (see TELE-audiovision issue01-02/2014) set up the basic settingsin such a way that you dont typicallyhave to be concerned with all of theseoptions and/or setting each one up oneat a time and then individualizing themover the course of time.

Really practical is the ability for theuser to select if and how the PC should

turn itself off after a preprogrammedrecording, in what format recordingsshould be made (transponder streamor MPEG), how the receiver should dealwith EPG data, teletext and subtitles,etc. Especially noteworthy is the Hard -ware section that with its help will letyou con gure in detail the availablehardware or set up new hardware.

In the basic settings there are veFavorites categories that are directlyaccessible through the Main menu thatcan easily be expanded on and/or lledwith channels. Alternatively, a singlemouseclick can be used to access theentire channel list that is sorted by sat -ellite or provider in the initial settings. Ifnecessary though, it can also be dividedby other criteria. Thanks to the built-in search function, channels can quicklybe found even if they are stored in apoorly sorted or unorganized fashion.Along with this we found that the Chan-nel Editor was a very practical functionthat could be used to manage and edit

each individual entry in the channel listregardless if youre working with the PIDvalues of a single channel or the DiS-EqC options and/or LOF parameters ofan entire satellite. On the software sideof things, nearly everything is support -ed that is technical feasible. It doesntmatter if its DiSEqC 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 or 1.3,even individual DiSEqC command se-quences can be entered and stored. Itshould be mentioned however that notall of the hardware that might be usedcan work with all of these functions. Inparticular, DiSEqC 1.2 and 1.3 can be aproblem for many PC receiver cards be-cause of the high power consumption ofthe antenna motor. Naturally, the LOFparameters can be individually adapted;even the 22 kHz switching signal (33kHz and 44 kHz are also available) canbe activated. In our test DVBViewer Proin conjunction with our PC receiver cardhad no trouble handling the signal distri-bution here in our test center. Speci -cally, it was DiSEqC 1.0 and 1.1 as wellas a DiSEqC 1.3 motor.

5. Initial settings

6. Recorder settings

7. Recordings can take place inTS (transport stream) or MPEGformat.

8. Codec selection for DVDplayback

9. EPG settings

10. The transponder data forthe reception of different EPGservices can be individuallyadjusted

11. TV and radio settings

12. In addition to TV and radioreception, audio and video

les can also be opened withDVBViewer Pro locally, througha URL or via UPnP

13. DVBViewer Pro channel list

For the channel scan, a preprogrammedlist of 150 European, American and Asiansatellites is included although the corre-sponding transponder data was not quite upto date. Thankfully the search function canbe limited to FTA-only channels; this helpsto reduce the time involved with receptionsystems with no CI slot. The channel scanitself was actually quite fast; the softwareneeded just a little over four minutes to nd1959 TV and radio channels on HOTBIRD at

13 east. This process took a little longer,namely just about seven minutes, with the In Depth Search function activated. Inthis mode not only is the stored transponderdata scanned, DVBViewer Pro also attemptsto identify newly activated or altered tran-sponders. This worked very well in our tests;after an In Depth Search a few more chan-nels found their way into the channel list.We also liked the Update Transponder scanwhere the available channel list is simplybrought up to date, that is, new channels onthe existing transponders are added to thelist while any channels that no longer ex-ist are automatically removed. Consideringhow often channels come and go, it certainly

pays to perform this task from time to time.

So that DVBViewer Pro can be controllednot only through a PC but also very comfort-ably via a remote control, a very well organ-ized on-screen display (OSD) is available thatoffers nearly every possible function includ-ing access to the EPG. DVBViewer Pro has avery interesting solution involving the recog-nition of EPG data: its available in a numberof different standards. In Europe youll come

across the normal EPG data provided byeach channel but theres also the Mediahigh-way EPG from Canal Plus, the British FreesatEPG as well as the SiehFernInfo EPG data.The necessary transponder data for recep-tion is preprogrammed but can be modi edby the user if needed. The EPG data itself ispresented in its own window and of coursein a number of different modes: it doesntmatter if you choose the Timeline, TV Guideor the display of the current channel, in eachcase you can easily get a detailed descriptionof the current program or future broadcastsfor the selected channel. And how could itbe any different: naturally the entire EPGdatabase can be searched through based


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14. Channel scan

15. The channel list editor can be used toedit each entry individually

16. The DiSEqC protocols 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 and1.3 are all supported

17. Even individual DiSEqC commandstrings can be entered18. Thanks to DiSEqC 1.3 support, aDiSEqC motor can easily be controlled19. List of preprogrammed satellites andtransponders

20. EPG overview of a single channel

21. EPG overview of all currently runningprograms

22. EPG overview in Timeline mode

23. EPG overview in TV Guide mode


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24. Timer recordings can easily be pro-grammed and also, if desired, withnumerous playback functions25. The integrated teletext decoder 26. New Favorites folders can be createdand lled with channels27. The Favorites folders appear directly inDVBViewer Pros main menu28. Recordings in progress are shown inthe status bar and also blended in via OSDafter it starts29. The recording status window showsthat currently six simultaneous recordingsare in progress30. If more than one receiver is available,you can set where the individual recor-dings should get their signals from

31. In addition to PC reception cards and external PC boxes, DVBViewerPro can also work with network services such as IPTV via RTSP

32. The compatibility tool checks to see if the PC and the installed recep-tion hardware is compatible before the installation of DVBViewer Pro


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One of the most important featuresof DVBViewer Pro is the entire PVRfunction with which one or more broad-casts can be recorded on the PCs harddrive. Depending on the hardware inuse, multiple recordings could possiblytake place at the same time. In ourtests we used our single tuner DVB-S2card to record four HD channels at thesame time. If PC cards with multipletuners were used, the maximum num-ber of simultaneous recordings couldtheoretically have no limits. Math-ematically, DVBViewer Pro is capableof driving 2^32 devices at the sametime but in reality factors such as CImodules for decryption as well as themaximum data transfer rate via USB orPCIB Bus limit this capability. For thistest we connected a second externalTV card as well as another test PC andwere able to simultaneously record fourHD channels from the built-in DVB-S2

single tuner card on the PCI Bus plusan additional two SD channels from theexternal box on the USB port. We alsohad no problems with the Time Shiftfunction that lets you pause a programat any time and come back to it at alater time without missing a thing.

An exclusive feature of DVBViewerPro is its DVB Recording Service in -tegration. This has to do with a toolthat can be downloaded for free byregistered users from www.dvbviewer.com and enhances the recording func-tions of DVBViewer Pro. The programis installed under Windows and cantherefore run independently from eachlogged in user. It can wake up the PCfrom Standby and then run prepro-grammed recordings. It features anextensive web interface with accessto EPG data, EPG search and recorderprogramming so that every function,

33. BBC1 HD reception using DVBViewerPro via local IPTV34. The Info bar provides not only EPG databut also status information on the currentbroadcaster 35. Con guration of an RTSP networkservice for the reception of IPTV withDVBViewer Pro36. Reception of US TV in DVBViewer Prothrough USTVNOW37. Here a channel scan of TURKSAT at 42east is in progress

on keywords; even tim-er entries can be pro-grammed directly fromthe EPG with just a sin-gle click of the mouse.


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38. EPG display of the DVBrecording service in a webbrowser (grid format)

39. EPG display of the DVBrecording service in a webbrowser (list format)

40. EPG view of a broadcasterin a web browser 41. The entire EPG can besearched by keywords directlyin the web browser


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whether its a local LAN orpublic Internet, can be used.It can also stream the cur-rent program via LAN toother PCs. In addition toits original function of han-dling preprogrammed timer

recordings, it can also bestbe used in areas of networkstreaming and control viaLAN and/or Internet.

The basic concept of DVB-Viewer Pro is the separa-tion of reception hardwareand software such that theDVBViewer Pro doesnt carewhere the signal to be pro-cessed comes from or howit was received. The onlything is that it involves thetypical standards youd see,

for example, with cable, ter-restrial antenna or satel-lite DVB or RTSP with IPTVreception. Especially idealwith this concept is that itspossible to have multiple re-ception paths simultaneous-

ly side by side. In this way,for example, one portion of abroadcast could be receivedthrough a satellite receptionsystem while another por-tion lands on a PC via IPTV.For our tests we u sed a TriaxTSS400; it routes the entirefrequency spectrum of a sat-ellite via IPTV in our localnetwork and makes it avail-able to us here in our testcenter. It worked togetherwith DVBViewer Pro withoutany problems while at the

42. Timer programming in a web browser 43. Expanded EPG information in a web browser 44. Each channel can be streamed to another network PC45. DVB Recording Service con guration46. Controlling the DVB Recording Service's individual features47. Streaming a channel via DVB Recording Service48. DVBViewer Pro's OSD main menu49. Timer programming via OSD50. OSD channel list51. OSD EPG52. Mosaic view


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53. OSD EPG overview of multiple channels

54. If HbbTV content is recognized, DVBViewer Pro blends in acorresponding symbol in the OSD55. HbbTV content can even be accessed via the main menu56. HbbTV from German broadcaster ARD57. Accessing ARD's Mediathek58. Playback of TV programming via ARD Mediathek

same time a TV PC card andan external TV box were inoperation.

DVBViewer Pro also sup-ports the HbbTV (HybridBroadcast Broadband TV)standard. During our teststhe HbbTV Plug-in workedperfectly with Germanbroadcasters like ARD as wellas with the British BBC orDutch NED1. We especiallyliked that the HbbTV displayin DVBViewer Pro functionedquickly and not with a slow

reaction time like you mightsee from other receivers.

The DVBViewer Pro also in-cludes a fully-functional Me-dia Center that can be usedto play back audio and video

les in nearly every possibleformat. Then theres DVDplayback making the DVB-Viewer Pro a DVD player aswell. Theres also access tomedia les via UPnP. Andits this feature that heldour rapt attention during ourtests: it lets you access, for

example, an external net-work hard drive that containsthousands of songs.

In addition to all of thestandard functions availablein DVBViewer Pro, additionalfunctions can be added sim-ply through the use of its own

plug-in interface. The selec-tion includes nearly every-thing from CAS emulatorsto practical plug-ins such ascreating compatibility withthe remote control systemsof different manufacturersor even integrating Internettelephony via Skype.


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OPINION

EXPERT

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RECOMMENDEDPRODUCT BY

Thomas HaringTest Center

Austria

DVBViewer ProTV Viewer Software

www.TELE-audiovision.com/14/01/dvbviewer

MORE ABOUT THIS COMPANY

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59. Via HbbTV the BBC iPlayer in DVBViewer Pro isalso available60. Entering the desired frequency for analysis inTransEdit61. TransEdit shows all of the available PIDs in atransponder stream and graphically displays theportion of the total data stream62. Channel scan of an MIS transponder

Numerous settings capabilities Repeatedly expandable through plug-in interface Six or more simultaneous recordings possible with the

proper hardware Through the support of various remote control systems and

thanks to a corresponding graphical on-screen display, DVB-Viewer Pro can also be controlled comfortable from your livingroom couch

Ultra HDTV reception in H.265 is already integrated

Preprogrammed channel lists are somewhat out-of-date

Included in the DVBViewerPro package is the TransEditsoftware for professionals.It can be used to analyzeand locally store the entiretransponder stream of asatellite. If the user entersa valid frequency or selectsone from the satellite/tran-sponder database, TransEditwill read in the receptiondata and display it graphi-cally. In this way the usercan not only get an overviewof what TV, radio and datastreams are available on theselected transponder, but hecan also see how much of thetotal data stream it takes up.With just a few clicks of themouse you can now store in-dividual PIDs, channels orthe entire data stream.

An especially exciting ap-plication for DVBViewer Prois the reception of UltraHDTV via satellite. While

there are currently no com-patible mass-produced re-ceivers yet available for this,it is now possible with DVB-

Viewer Pro to receive therst test transmissions. And

it becomes even more funif this is done using a pow-erful PC. With our test PCwe were able to receive anHEVC (High Ef ciency VideoCoding - H.265) coded signalwith a resolution of 3840 x2160 pixels; it was even pos-sible to record this supersharp picture on our harddrive. At the moment Chris-tian Hackbart is working onDVBViewer Pro so that it willbe able to simultaneouslyrecord and playback UltraHDTV in H.265. Currentlytheres a test transponderon HISPASAT at 30 weston 10.730 GHZ (V) that istransmitting in Ultra HDTV.But note that there are twotest signals being transmit-ted; one Ultra HDTV signal inH.264 (this one can alreadybe recorded and played backat the same time since it

doesnt overload the CPU)and the other Ultra HDTVsignal in H.265 (here DVB-Viewer Pro can currently

only record; it cannot play-back at the same time).

The reception of MIS (MultiInput Stream) transpond-ers also works without anyproblems, for example, fromATLANTIC BIRD 1 at 12.5west. DVBViewer Pro is notcapable of selecting the de-sired transponder stream onits own (for that you wouldneed a small tool from thereception card manufactur-er) but afterwards it could

process and display the ac-tivated transponder streamwithout any dif culties.

Although weve been us-ing DVBViewer Pro for quitesome time here at the TELE-audiovision test center, evenwe bumped into some func-tions that we had never usedbefore while preparing thistest report. DVBViewer Prois one of the most power-ful software solutions for TVand radio reception on a PC.

63. Reception of a TV channel transmitted from anMIS transponder on ATLANTIC BIRD 1 at 12.5 west64. WebTV content can be accessed and played backwithout any problems65. Nearly every A/V format is supported for playback66. DVBViewer Pro instantly recognized the twoavailable UPnP servers in our local network67. Display of the available video les on our networkdrive

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